The Halloween Tree - Hardcover

Bradbury, Ray

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0553512706 ISBN 13: 9780553512700

Publisher: Knopf Books for Young Readers, 2015

Synopsis

In The Halloween Tree, master of fantasy Ray Bradbury takes readers on a riveting trip though space and time to discover the true origins of Halloween.

Originally published in 1972, this striking new hardcover edition features dramatic illustrations throughout by Gris Grimly, giving a new generation of readers a chance to discover the magic.

About this title

Review:

Special indeed are holiday stories with the right mix of high spirits and subtle mystery to please both adults and children--Charles Dickens's "A Christmas Carol," for example. Or Ray Bradbury's classic The Halloween Tree. Eight boys set out on a Halloween night and are led into the depths of the past by a tall, mysterious character named Moundshroud. They ride on a black wind to autumn scenes in distant lands and times, where they witness other ways of celebrating this holiday about the dark time of year. Bradbury's lyrical prose whooshes along with the pell-mell rhythms of children running at night, screaming and laughing, and the reader is carried along by its sheer exuberance.

Bradbury's stories about children are always attended by dread--of change, adulthood, death. The Halloween Tree, while sweeter than his adult literature, is also touched at moments by the cold specter of loss--which is only fitting, of course, for a holiday in honor of the waning of the sun.

This is a superb book for adults to read to children, a way to teach them, quite painlessly, about customs and imagery related to Halloween from ancient Egypt, Mediterranean cultures, Celtic Druidism, Mexico, and even a cathedral in Paris. (One caveat, though: Bradbury unfortunately perpetuates a couple of misconceptions about Samhain, or summer's end, the Halloween of ancient Celts and contemporary pagans.) This beautiful reprint edition has the original black-and-white illustrations and a new color painting on the dust jacket. --Fiona Webster

From the Publisher:

"At last someone has written a book about Halloween that is tricky and scary, ghostly and windy, deathly and clammy"
-- The Boston Globe

"Imaginatively cryptic...skillfully presented."
-- The Los Angeles Times

"A spectacular guide to the nether regions."
-- Kirkus

"There is a great treat in Bradbury's frenetic imagery."
-- The New York Times

About this edition

• Publisher: Knopf Books for Young Readers
• Publication date: 2015
• ISBN 10: 0553512706
• ISBN 13: 9780553512700
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 144
• Illustrator: Grimly Gris